Ultrasound Examination
Experienced ultrasonographers performed an abdominal ultrasound on the patients. Unique to S. japonicum infection is parenchymal fibrosis, a network pattern that is often described as fish scale or tortoise shell-like. Hepatic fibrosis grading was carried out according to the standard of practical ultrasound diagnostic guidelines (1996) developed by the World Health Organization/Tropical Disease Research Organization. Patients were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of liver fibrosis detected by abdominal ultrasound. Mild or non-fibrosis group: normal and thicker light spot type, normal liver sonogram or only thick liver parenchyma echo; moderate and severe fibrosis group: focal echoes in the liver parenchyma are scattered without clear boundary and echo density bands form a continuous network,fish-scale and cobweb type.2, 29-32